The People’s Letters Page

Here is this week’s People’s Letters Page…

Dear Editor,

This letter is written out of deep concern for the future of this country.

Today we wonder if we will have any electricity in the near future.

It takes me back to the day I was called to the office of the company accountant.

He asked me to call to his brother on my way home, since we worked half day Saturday I called that day.

Having rang the bell an elderly gentleman answered, inviting me in.

His phone rang there were no mobiles then, he left to answer while I was waiting .

I saw something on a table, it was a complete model of the Shannon Hydroelectricity Plant.

On reading the brass plate on the front I discovered I had just shook the hand of one of the men who built it, Dr McLoughlin.

Since that day I wonder what happened. We had electricity produced for nothing, we now have Turlough Hill.

I can’t but wonder why we cannot repeat the type of station all around the country since we are surrounded by water.

Turlough Hill was built in less than 3 years.

We could repeat this plant all around the coast and the big advantage is we could build as many as we like in the same time.

The big advantage is we would put a stop to all imports and the cost, we would stop all the millions of profits that flows out of the country each year.

We would have a free health service and free college for every man’s child.

Think what that would mean to the whole country.

I believe the Labour Party to deal a hammer blow to all the main parties, all it needs is courage.

Joseph Carey, Greenhills,

Walkinstown,

D.12.

 

Dear Editor

I have noted your article entitled “Nativity tale gets the whole story wrong” in your recent edition in regard to Peter Keenan’s book “The Birth of Jesus the Jew”.

In it Peter Keenan has decided to rewrite the whole history of Christmas. How he can now tell us conclusively what did or did not happen some 2000 years later is highly questionable.

While he is fully free to state his opinions on what he wishes to believe in or not believe in or what he thinks happened he cannot present his views as facts.

In particular he cannot state that the Virgin birth was not factual.

By doing so he also insults Our Blessed Lady and all those who honour and revere her.

Having regard to all the other matters which he disputes I am surprised that he actually acknowledges that Jesus existed.

This book should be renamed “Christmas according to Peter Keenan”.

I for one won’t be wasting my money on buying this book.

Yours

Michael O’Dwyer,

Dublin 5.

 

Dear Editor.

The hunting season is upon us, and the pursuit of the uneatable by the unspeakable, as Oscar Wilde called this activity, has returned to our countryside. While I welcome the resumption of sports and recreations following the Covid lockdown I feel sick to the stomach at the prospect of this pastime making a comeback.

I have just read a report on some recent Irish hunts in an equestrian magazine and I notice that blood sport apologists still find it necessary to resort to evasion and carefully chosen euphemisms when writing about foxhunting.

The report refers to a twenty minute chase through County Laois that culminated in a fox running onto a farm in search of refuge. It enthused about the suitability of the terrain, the lovely hedges and the crisp winter air etc. But the fate of the fox doesn’t merit a mention. The report recounts another hunt in which the fox, following a long chase, was “marked to ground.”

No mention of the animal suffering in any way, but this phrase normally refers to when a fox is driven into a drain or den from which it is then dug out. And of course the report alludes to the wonderful day had by all and the festivities afterwards in the pubs and hotels.

We need to get behind the picture postcard image of foxhunting that depicts wizened riders attired in red jackets and jodhpurs setting off from a town square, led by happy tail-wagging hounds, while in the background snow falls wispily from whitened rooftops.

A hunt is not sporting in that it pits up to seventy hounds against one fox, and the aim is to kill the hunted animal…not quickly as in pest-control but in a long drawn-out, choreographed chase that must give pleasure to the riders and hunt followers.

You won’t ever see the result of a hunt depicted on postcards or table mats: An animal that has dropped down from exhaustion having the skin ripped from its bones; or a terrified fox that has gone to earth being dragged to the surface with the aid of spades and terriers.

Later this month, a Bill to ban fox hunting will come before the Northern Ireland Assembly. The Dail should also be debating the issue.

It’s time to end this organized animal cruelty masquerading as sport.

Thanking you,

John Fitzgerald

Dear Editor,

Dreams should never be something you hope to dream of.

Dreams are inexpensive things to have.

Every single family can afford them tonight.

The Late Late Toy Show has sprinkled beautiful drops of magic everywhere this year with such beautiful moments.

The future is going to be perfect with such wonderful young people coming its way.

Don’t wash your hands of your community.

Help your local charity to sprinkle beautiful drops of magic everywhere this Christmas.

I know you will sleep better if you do.

Darren Lalor,

Barrister at Law,

The Law Library,

Dublin 8